SAN LEANDRO — The three-way race to the Hayward Area Athletic League baseball crown is now down to two.

Bishop O’Dowd High delivered a crushing blow to San Leandro’s league title hopes with a 7-2 win in front of a riled-up crowd at San Leandro on Wednesday.

The win put the Dragons (10-7, 9-1 HAAL) in the driver’s seat for at least a share of the league crown. Castro Valley, the only team to knock off the Dragons in league play, are one game behind Bishop O’Dowd in the standings.

The two will meet for the second time on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. at Bishop O’Dowd. A Castro Valley win would give the Trojans (10-7, 8-2) the tiebreaker over O’Dowd for the automatic North Coast Section 3-A playoff bid, if both squads finish with identical records in league play.

“It feels great to knock San Leandro out of league title contention,” said O’Dowd’s Chad Santos, who doubled and scored twice. “We knew this was going to be a big game, and we stepped up for it. Now we have to avenge our loss to Castro Valley.”

The Dragons had just four hits in the game, but were aided by five walks — four coming in a three-run sixth inning — and five errors by San Leandro.

The Pirates (11-8, 7-4), trailing 5-2 in the bottom of the sixth, loaded the bases with no outs. But Graham Rodriguez struck out David Buscovich. Adrian Girardeau laced a grounder right to second baseman Connor Crabb, who started the 4-6-3 inning-ending double play.

“It was in our grasp,” Pirates coach Jeff Schultz said. “We had a great chance to win, but a couple of walks and well-placed groundballs got us.

“Adrian hits a ball on the numbers, but right to the second baseman for a double play. That is unlucky. We hit a lot of balls hard, but things just didn’t roll our way today.”

Pirates’ starter James Chamberlin trailed 2-1, despite giving up just one hit and striking out six through the first five innings. The Dragons scored twice in the fourth inning on back-to-back squeeze plays for the 2-1 lead.

Rodriguez never came unglued in the playoff-like atmosphere created by the rowdy fans. The lefty tossed six innings of five-hit ball and made all the clutch pitches.

“I was just focusing on getting the batters,” Rodriguez said. “If I hear a fan yell something, I just laugh at it and use it as motivation. None of that really gets to me.”

A two-out RBI single by T.J. Sarmiento gave the Pirates a 1-0 lead in the second inning. O’Dowd took a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth, but Andrew Torres’ RBI single in the bottom half of the inning tied it at 2.

San Leandro still has a solid chance of gaining an at-large berth into the NCS 3-A playoffs.

“We have to take care of our business the rest of the way and stay positive,” Schultz said. “We have a great team, a very scary team.”

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